To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!